Unable to Send Texts to Certain Numbers - no area code

Since I bought my phone on Friday, I have unable to send text messages to my boyfriend. I keep getting messages back claiming that there was no area code included in the number, even though there is. I have never had an issue with this until I got my Motorola Droid. I am a former AllTel customer and I don't know if the issue is with the phone or the service.

Here are the details:
- he has the HTC G1
- he can text and call me and I can call him
- I can text friends who have the same provider as him (t-mobile)
- I have tried texting his number various ways
- 1-555-555-5555 format and 555-555-5555 formats
- I have deleted him and added him as a contact
- I have tried sending texts with and without him as a contact
- I have turned the phone on and off and tried removing the battery
- his number is the only one I've had this issue with so far.

I called verizon support and they're going to investigate, but I'm not too confident that they'll be able to fix the issue quickly, if at all.

Has anyone else had this issue?

I have tried other messaging apps which seem to work, but are inconvenient.

I am having pretty much the same issues as you are. I am also waiting for verizon to get back to me they told me it was a server issue that they were having. If they do get back to you can you post what they said and I'll do the same thanks

I received a call back from verizon yesterday. The lady said that they're aware of the issue and a patch to fix it would be out sometime around December 11th. I have found that the app HandCent will allow u to send texts to numbers that I haven't been able to send to. U could try that. Btw, I have reported this issue to google too. I will let u know if I hear anything back on that. Thanks.

Make sure all message threads are deleted. Put his number in like this 1(555)-555-5555. With the phone on, remove battery for at least 3 seconds. Put battery in, turn on phone. It should work now. Let us know.

I'm having all sorts of text messaging issues as well. I spent over 2 hours on the phone with Verizon technical support yesterday and thought that a "reset to factory defaults" cleared up the problem...but not for long.

It seems I can send and receive messages through the email gateway (vtext.com), and I can send messages to other PDA/Smartphones on Verizon network. And, I can reply to a message from another "plain" phone. But that's about it. All of my other outbound text messages are lost somewhere.

While the Droid is great for some of the apps...it's not so great as a phone so far!

After over a 2 hour chat with a nice guy at Verizon customer support, I was able to get some of my texts working..but only after a "wipe to factory settings". I hadn't anticipated spending that much time on the phone, so once a message worked, I thanked him and said good-bye.

However after re-configuring my google account, my corporate (exchange) account and downloading my applications from the Market, I'm back to the same issue.

Another call to Verizon technical support and I got a less friendly person. She insisted that it wasn't Verizon's problem if an application from the market broke messaging. As a software engineer myself, I informed her I understood Verizon could not be held responsible for other appliations behavior on the device. BUT...

Texting is basic phone capabilities. I should certainly hope that the functionality is exposed to applications by an API, and by installing one appliation, my texting should not quit working. I am not about to conduct a full regression test of all phone features every time I download somethign from the market...that would be useless.

I still need to re-wipe and slowly add things back one at a time. However that testing is going to be a P.I.t.A. I am having very irregular results:

I can receive messages just fine..from anyone.

I can send a message to another Droid no problem..all day long

I can send a message to an iPhone if I put a +1 in front of the 10-digit number, but not otherwise

I can send a message to another Verizon basic (flip) phone if I put a +1 in front of the 10-digit number

I cannot send a message to users of basic phones on other networks (not that I know which network everyone I know use).

I do have caller ID blocking on my account, so most of my contact mobile numbers include the *82 activation code to unblock my number. On my winmo phone, I had to remove the *82, but that doesn't seem to be a problem on the droid. Same results if I use *82 +1 555 555 1212 as when I leave the *82 off.

Oh, and when I use the +1 on my iPhone friend's contact number...the Messaging application puts my messages to him and his responses (that come without the 1 on the front) in separate threads.

I'm really disappointed that Messaging didn't seem to be tested more thoroughly. I'm secretly hoping that the new release in mid December fixes these issues.

As I said before, there's not much point in having an Android phone if you can't install any applications or sync your corporate contacts with it for fear you might break basic phone features!

I've tried re-entering the phone number in several different formats, but so far no luck. I set up a Google voice account, and I can use that as a workaround. Actually, it doesn't matter for the next week or so, since I'm in the UK and can't use my Droid over here. Sigh. My Treo feels so primitive.

I have since learned. If you delete text threads AND clear phone logs, removal of the battery is not needed. For what ever reason the phone wants to use the numbers in the message threads and phone logs before the contact list. So even though you changed the contact to include the area code, it will still try to use the number from the thread or log that don't have the area code.

interesting, I have been able to text anyone so far, no matter what provider or phone they are using.
Handcent seems to have a problem (maybe?) with AT&T, but the basic messaging seems to work fine.
I have not used a one (1) in front of any numbers either.

I have been having trouble texting a single number as well. Lots of time with Verizon on both sides of the issue (my account and the recipient's account) with no resolution. I've tried all the area code variations, added a 1, deleted the contact, all threads, etc... Only after erasing everything and pulling the battery can I send a text to this one number, as soon as she replies, and maybe I get a couple or so replies back... it suddenly stops sending on my end.

When I am in her town (60 miles away), we can text with no problems. When she is in my town we can text with no problems. There is apparently some relaying problem across some of the towers or networks between the two of us.

We never had this problem with our Treo's. It has just started since we both got Droids. It doesn't happen to anyone else I text, or that texts me. I have zero problems except with the ONLY person I really want to text! It's a nasty, mean spirited little gremlin. I welcome anyone with advice on what to do!

Therefore many of my contact phone numbers started with *82 to unblock my number when calling those familiar people.

The messaging app on the Droid doesn't necessarily show you on the screen the dialing string it sends to the network.

The messaging app on the Droid evidently maintains a cache of numbers used, in addition to using the current Message threads and Phone Call Log entries

When you send an SMS message to someone and it fails (because of the *82, for example), if you edit the contact entry, the "old" information is still cached in the application. Even if you try to type the number manually, it finds a match in the existing cache and uses not what you type, but what it already has.

The inverse seems also to be true...if you send it and it works the first time, then if you add the *82, or if they send you a message first (that comes across without it), then you can reply.

This behavior cause some really inconsistent behavior. But now that I know..here's what I did to resolve it:

Edit all contacts, removing the *82 prefix and ensuring they have a 10-digit number. Make sure contacts are all sync'd up with Corporate or Google accounts.

Delete all Message threads

Clear the Call Log

Power down the Droid

Power up the Droid

Went to VerizonWireless.com and removed Caller ID blocking from my account.

Messages to everyone (with or without parenthesis, spaces or dashes in their numbers) work great...as long as it's a 10-digit number. International texts work great also, as long as the number is prefixed with 011 then the country code and number.

I called Verizon back to tell them how I resolved this issue so they could make note of it. My guess is that the messaging app is stripping non-numerics (including the *) but isn't stripping the service activation code (82). So it tries to deliver a text to 825555551212, which of course is not valid. A good messaging app would strip the * and the next 2 digits. *Hint* *Hint*

Now that his issue is resolved for me, I'm really in love with my Droid :icon_ banana:

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